Phil Mickelson has more of everything than when he began
his golf career  family, money, fame and game  except major championships.
That meter still registers zero.

At Augusta National on Saturday, Mickelson spared no effort
to put himself into a position to change that. He went through enough lives
to kill a cat. He zoomed up the leaderboard, crashed spectacularly several times,
each time clawing his way back toward the top again.

At the end of the round, he was at 11-under, trailing only
Tiger Woods. Those two now go off as The Masters final pair Sunday, one of those
rare convergences in major championship history where the best player in the
world plays alongside No. 2.

But only one of them can afford to lose.

"I desperately want this," Mickelson said as the late-afternoon
light scattered to the far reaches of the golf course, "very much so."

"I feel this provides me with the best opportunity. I've
been looking forward for some time to breaking through. I've been preparing
not just this past year, not just the past 10 years, but since I was a kid picking
up balls at a driving range," he added. "Tomorrow is a very important day for
me."

Mickelson won his first pro tournament 10 years ago, while
still a 20-year-old amateur and when there seemed to be no shortage of tomorrows.
An NCAA championship and a U.S. Amateur followed in short order. Then he started
racking up wins on the PGA Tour and now has 18 in all.

In between, Mickelson found a beautiful wife, had a beautiful
baby daughter, and built a portfolio that will ensure his great, great-grandchildren
never have to work a day in their lives. He learned to fly a plane, how to scuba-dive
off the Great Barrier Reef, and even the intricacies of designing the golf clubs
he wields with such great effect.

But there was always one thing missing.

"The way I look at it, the winner tomorrow doesn't just
win a major," Mickelson said. "The history of the game is made here and I want
to be part of it."

How badly was evident early this week, when Mickelson arrived
here with a mantra: "It's my time."

He said something similar before each of the last dozen
majors or so, repeating it more stridently as other young guns like Ernie Els
and Justin Leonard, and even players such as Steve Jones and John Daly, leapfrogged
his place in line.

This time, though, despite the overwhelming shadow Woods
casts on every major championship, there was evidence Mickelson might be right.

At the Buick Invitational 14 months ago, he stopped Woods'
streak of six consecutive PGA Tour victories. Last November, he turned the trick
again, halting a streak of 19 tournaments in which Woods turned a 54-hole lead
into a victory.

"He's got four or five major wins," Mickelson said. "I
think it's time for him to share."

There is undeniable charm in the idea that Mickelson will
almost certainly have to beat Woods, the toughest competitor in the game, to
get the one thing he wants most. Because other than major championships, where
he's a career-deflating 0-for-34, everything else in life has come relatively
easy to Mickelson.

But the way he kept resuscitating his round Saturday showed
that the left-hander might finally have learned enough about toughness and patience
and hard work to make use of all that natural talent.

He birdied two of the first three holes, then stumbled
at No. 8 by three-putting from 6 feet. No sooner did he get that back with a
birdie at No. 13 than a reckless gamble at No. 14 resulted in a momentum-killing
double bogey.

Faced with a simple chip-and-run at the back of the green,
Mickelson hit a spectacular flop shot instead. The ball floated over a ridge,
died suddenly, and left him a 30-foot putt for par.

"Would I hit the shot again?" Mickelson said. "I felt like
the shot I played was not an unintelligent shot."

Those kind of go-for-broke shots ruined so many other rounds
that it looked as if another major had eluded Mickelson's grasp. Instead, he
pounded out three workmanlike pars and turned aggressive at the last two holes.

"I knew heading into 17 that I needed to birdie those to
get in the last group. And I felt like that would be important because I didn't
want what happened at Bay Hill to happen to me again," Mickelson said.

That was two weekends ago, when Mickelson stood alongside
the 18th green and Woods came to the last hole needing a birdie to win. Woods
made it  and reminded Mickelson one more time of the vast gulf between
potential and performance.

"It means not worrying or thinking about other players,"
he said. "It means bringing my best game out  something that's not always
easy to do."

Woods' emergence pushed all those promising golfers who
preceded him into the background. Champions only get so many chances to step
forward and the danger is that Mickelson has used up too many of his already.

Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated
Press.

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